Studio estimates on Sunday say the Virtual Reality-focused film earned a solid $53.2 million in its first four days in theaters from 4,234 locations.

Based on Ernest Cline's popular novel and chalk full of references to 1980s pop culture, "Ready Player One" cost a reported $175 million to produce.

"Tyler Perry's Acrimony" took second place. Driven by an overwhelmingly female audience, the Taraji P. Henson-starrer grossed $17.1 million over the 3-day weekend, followed by "Black Panther" in third place with $11.3 million.

Faith-based films also competed for attention, including "I Can Only Imagine" which scored again with $10.8 million, outshining "Paul, Apostle of Christ's" $3.5 million and "God's Not Dead 3's" $2.6 million.